The House approved a two-year budget deal Wednesday as retiring House Speaker John A. Boehner sought to quell the bitter budget battles that defined his tenure and provide a smoother transition for his likely successor, Rep. Paul D. Ryan.
The $80-billion...

Rep. Paul D. Ryan stepped closer to becoming the new House speaker Wednesday, winning an internal Republican nominating election for the job he never wanted but is now eager to embrace.
The 45-year-old former GOP vice presidential nominee won the...

U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy is the odds-on favorite to become the second House speaker from California in less than a decade, a remarkable run of clout for the nation's largest state.
But McCarthy, a Bakersfield Republican expected to succeed Speaker John...

Despite promises that it wouldn't come to this, Congress and the White House are charging toward another government shutdown.The next fiscal crisis could come as soon as Oct. 1 unless a new government spending plan is approved. But with House members...

As congressional Republicans find themselves tangled over their newly introduced spending plans, President Obama tried Wednesday to seize the moment to talk about government spending on his terms, namely a focus on opportunities for the middle class.
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Senate leaders moved toward a deal Wednesday to avoid a shutdown of the Homeland Security Department, sidestepping a fight over immigration policy, as President Obama declared his administration would curtail deportations of immigrants in the country...

Sen. Ted Cruz stood outside the Capitol on a dreary Wednesday, leading the charge against President Obama's immigration plan. But it was not entirely clear who was following him.
The Texas Republican was imploring fellow GOP members to block money for...

In the suddenly and surprisingly tight Senate race in Kansas, one gets the distinct impression that the troubled campaign of Sen. Pat Roberts is still winging it — perhaps even right-winging it.
Wearing the purple colors of Kansas State University,...

California and Texas bicker over so many things — who has the better scenery, the better jobs, the better quality of life.
Now, the quarrel between the most and second-most populous states is shifting to a bare-knuckle battle over who can claim the...

Will House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s stunning fall result in a rise in congressional influence for California?
Maybe, because the lawmaker perhaps best positioned to fill Cantor’s job is Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from Bakersfield.
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As the acting secretary of Veterans Affairs tries to assure congressmen that he is moving to address the VA healthcare scandal, his department is preparing to release more results of a nationwide audit of scheduling practices that have been denounced as...

The most important battle in politics today is the one within the Republican Party, and the tea party movement didn't start it. The GOP's civil war began in 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt made progressivism the governing philosophy of the Republican...

WASHINGTON — By most measures, it's been a dire few months for the tea party.
Its candidates stumbled in two Texas primary races. Supporters in Congress failed to block bipartisan deals to increase government spending and raise the debt ceiling. And a...

WASHINGTON — In a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) listed the beliefs he said united Republicans, urging them not to "confuse tactics with principles."
"The differences between us are dwarfed by...

WASHINGTON — Outside the capital the prospect might seem unthinkable, but inside it seems increasingly likely, and to some inevitable: In less than two weeks, the federal government, from the Agriculture Department to the Weather Service, may shut its...

WASHINGTON – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) vowed to do “everything necessary and anything possible” to ensure passage of legislation that would strip the new healthcare law of some of its funding, assuring House Republicans of his full support for a strategy...

Before he gets to the fiscal cliff, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) will have to traverse the conservative chasm.
On one side of the growing rift stand pragmatic conservatives such as Ann Coulter and Bill Kristol who say Republicans should...